


no better love

by tamanone



Series: every now and then the stars align [3]
Category: Joker Game (Anime)
Genre: Anniversary, M/M, Old Married Couple, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25128247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamanone/pseuds/tamanone
Summary: The thought comes unbidden to him on one fine spring morning:“We never... got to go on a date, did we.”or: kamihata decides to go out for their anniversary. written for kamihata day (05/03) 2020.
Relationships: Hatano/Kaminaga (Joker Game)
Series: every now and then the stars align [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1330583
Kudos: 1





	no better love

**Author's Note:**

> i finally remember to do this ha ha ha :-)

The thought comes unbidden to him on one fine spring morning:

“We never... got to go on a date, did we.”

Kaminaga looks up from the newspaper, a cup of coffee (with way too much milk and sugar in Hatano’s opinion, and the complete opposite of the espresso he always drank while in the agency) in his other hand. He lets out a short hum, and then, “beating up those Wind Agency bastards didn’t count?”

Hatano raises an eyebrow. “You consider _that_ a date?” 

A slight upturn of the lips and Hatano realizes that he played right into Kaminaga’s hand. “You tell me, you’re the hand-to-hand combat maniac.”

 _Maniac, he said..._ “I wasn’t even into you yet, at that time...” Hatano grumbles into his own coffee (the one with the **normal** amount of cream and sugar in it, thank you very much.)

“Eeh, you weren’t?” —that whiny tone will always be so jarring, coming from a seventy-something year old man, so who knows why Hatano keeps letting him get away with it— “How mean, I think I was already starting to fall for you then. Ah, what to do, my husband doesn’t like me back...”

“What are you even going on about.” He hisses, and oh, he can feel it, the heat creeping up his neck, all due to that _word_ , “It’s all in the past. What matters is that we end up here, isn’t it? As— as husbands.”

Kaminaga’s beaming smile doesn’t help subside the blush at all. “I suppose it is,” he replies with a chuckle, “wait, what were we talking about again— a date, was it? What about it?”

The question makes him scowl. There is no way Kaminaga has lost track of their conversation topic after a few sentences. They may be getting old, but such deeply ingrained skill will not wither away so easily, so it’s clear that he just wants to hear Hatano say it again, the asshole. “Just that we never went on one.”

(Not even after they got married. Going out for something other than errands seem, well, pointless isn’t exactly the word, but for a lack of a better one, it’ll have to do. You see, outside, there are a number of things they can’t do, _intimate_ things that would seem normal between a woman and a man. Because both of them are men, they can’t hold each other’s hand, can’t embrace each other, can’t kiss—even though he can confidently say their feelings for each other are not in any way inferior to those between opposite sex. So why bother going outside when they can stay in and not hold back on their intimacy? They’ve done enough of that; decades of hiding their emotions away, pretending they don’t have feelings because that’s what their role as spies call for.)

(But then again... he envies those couples, sometimes, who are accepted by society at large. A small part of himself wants to show off their relationship, their love that has stood against the test of time.

Fuck, old age has really made him soft.)

“That’s true...” Kaminaga turns to finally look at him fully, “should we go on one, then? Since our anniversary is coming soon, as well. Let’s eat somewhere fancy.”

A week later, and now they’re driving to the restaurant Kaminaga has called ahead for a reservation. Somewhere _fancy_ , as promised, that serves western food to contrast their habit of cooking Japanese dishes at home. And though it’s unlikely that they will be asked, they came up with a cover story—that they’re old friends who just found each other again—a practice that’s part habit and part paranoia. They ordered champagne that’s definitely overpriced, but tastes decent so it’s slightly forgivable. Still they force themselves to finish the entire bottle, just to get their money’s worth, and Kaminaga ended up having to down a jug of water to sober himself up before they could move on to the next part of their date, since he’s the one who knows the destination.

They keep the radio turned off, and instead Kaminaga fills the silence with his own voice by humming to Fred Astaire’s The Way You Look Tonight, which they consider to be their wedding song of some sorts. He remembers it like it was yesterday—the two of them in their living room, swaying side to side with their arms around each other as that song plays softly from the record player that Kaminaga found at some pawn shop. Hatano smiles into his hand, basking in the comfortable atmosphere, enjoying his husband’s voice. It _is_ a nice voice, when not used to be loud or whiny, though he will never tell the other unless prompted.

Kaminaga brings him to this small park on a hill that Hatano remembers passing by when they first came to this town to check out the house and look around the area. He remembers thinking that it’d be nice to go there to walk their dog, if they ever decide to get one. They don’t have a dog, though, only this one stray cat that comes by their house on a regular basis for meals, so he never had any excuse to go. Until now, apparently.

“What are we going to do here?” He asks Kaminaga.

“You’ll see.” comes the cryptic answer.

There’s still alcohol in his system, it seems, as he’s itching to reach out and grab Kaminaga’s hand even though he knows it’s not wise to. He shoves both his own into his coat pockets instead. 

Kaminaga leads them to an unoccupied bench that overlooks the town as well as the night sky, it’s also at a spot where the streetlamp is dimmer than the others. 

It might not be much compared to the views they’ve seen while on a mission overseas, but this is nice in its own way. Not to mention the company is good too, so Hatano isn’t complaining.

They start to quietly chat as they watch the stars, shoulder-to-shoulder and finally safe enough to hold hands. The lights filtering out of people’s windows makes it seem like a reflection of the sky. Hatano is content with this, but then Kaminaga drops his head onto Hatano’s shoulder, surprising him.

“Kaminaga...” he whispers worriedly. The “ _are you sure it’s fine to do this_ ” goes unspoken.

“The woman we encountered first only has one cigarette left and will soon be leaving, the couple we saw next are mere seconds from french kissing each other, and the lone man two benches away is drunk to the point of drowsiness,” Kaminaga mumbles out his answer, “I think we’ll be fine.”

Well, if his husband says so then...

Hatano wills himself to relax and rests his head on top of Kaminaga’s.

“Happy anniversary.” He whispers after a few moments, and Kaminaga replies in kind.

**Author's Note:**

> [the way you look tonight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsALgi5yM_A), first sung in '36 by fred astaire and then would later be re-popularized in '64 by frank sinatra. i imagine this would be a song that both of them would've heard multiple times throughout their lives. i also hc that one time it was playing in a club while the two of them are out together, kaminaga jokingly asks if hatano wants to dance w him and hatano flips him off. ah, young love.


End file.
